Talk on history of elections

LAHORE: Dr Ijaz Shafi Gilani, chairman of Gallup Pakistan/Gilani Research Foundation, delivered a special talk on the electoral history of Pakistan, under the auspices of Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) in Lahore.

The talk was titled "Is our Nation Fit for Democracy?" It was attended by prominent and influential personalities belonging to all walks of life, including Habib Akram, Sajjad Mir, Rehmat Ali Mujahid, executive director of Institute for Electoral Studies and former senior official of ECP, Javed Nawaz, chairman, PILDAT Board of Directors, Engineer Sajid Nomani, Altaf Hassan Qureshi, Ata-ur-Rehman, I.A. Rehman, senior analyst and former executive director of HRCP, Mujib-ur-Rehman Shami and Prof Dr Muhammad Waseem, professor at Department of Social Sciences, LUMS.

The talk was held on the basis of Dr Gilani’s upcoming book "The Melodramatic Electoral History of Pakistan (1970-2013)" with the purpose of seeking clarity based on the data on the voting patterns in the country.

The book deduces by demonstration of an evolutionary trend in Pakistan’s electoral history and systematically analysing 10 elections since 1970. The research uses polling data on the level of constituencies from Election Commission of Pakistan and uses it to analyse division of vote bank on a federal and provincial level.

Dr Gilani’s upcoming book outlines a history of elections in Pakistan over the course of the 10 elections, tracing an evolution, as well as reasons for it based on the historical and political processes. He also narrates the rise and fall of political parties over the years.

According to Dr Gilani, 1970, 1997 and 2013 elections marked the three most important milestones of Pakistan’s electoral history. He thinks that in the 2018 election, there will be little change in the division of the vote bank despite a tumult in the political scenario in the country. In the end, Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, PILDAT president, thanked Dr Ijaz Gilani for discussing an important and relevant subject of elections in Pakistan and sharing the invaluable information.